Tokyo: Stocks close higher, tracking US rallies

[TOKYO] Tokyo stocks closed higher for a third straight session on Tuesday, taking a positive lead from bullish trade on Wall Street.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index moved up 0.55 per cent, or 114.06 points, to end at 20,677.22, while the broader Topix index climbed 0.83 per cent, or 12.44 points, to 1,506.77.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.0 per cent Monday, joining a global rally amid talk of economic stimulus in Germany and China and expectation of further Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.

"US and European equities had a solid night boosted by confirmation the US commerce department will delay its ban on (Chinese telecom giant) Huawei for another 90 days," said Rodrigo Catril, senior FX strategist at National Australia Bank.

"Equity markets were also boosted by further speculation that the German government is preparing to ease fiscal policy with the news also fuelling a rise in core global bond yields."

"The Nikkei index rose following gains of US shares... but the growth was rather limited as traders are closely watching US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's speech" when he opens the central bank's annual Jackson Hole symposium later this week, Yoshihiro Ito, Okasan Online Securities chief strategist, said in a note.

The dollar fetched 106.47 yen in Asian trade, against 106.66 yen in New York on Monday and 106.39 yen in Tokyo late Monday.

In Tokyo share trading, chip makers were among the gainers with Tokyo Electron rising 1.36 per cent to 18,930 yen and Advantest 0.74 per cent to 4,055 yen.

Auto giant Toyota climbed 0.52 per cent to 6,909 yen and Honda rose 0.93 per cent to 2,395 yen.

Panasonic jumped 1.33 per cent to 817.7 yen with Sony up 1.17 per cent at 5,965 yen.

However, IT investor SoftBank Group fell 0.86 per cent to 4,937 yen.

AFP